Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (or Murphy's Law Strikes again)

Thursday, I went out with a friend
for a hunt out of his airboat in
Mary A. Things went fairly well
to start with. We got launched,
crossed the first airboat jump,
and tooled down C40 canal to
the levee crossing into Mary A.
This crossing is definitely
"unimproved." It was a high,
muddy run up and over a 20ft(?)
levee. I got off the boat and
waited on the top of the levee
as my friend got a good running
start. Almost at the apex of
the jump, he started sliding
sideways. The boat ended up
teetering precariously on the
edge of the levee. My friend
fell off and down the hill into
the thick para grass below.
I ran and grabbed the high
edge of the boat to keep it
from flipping over or sliding
down on top of him. Once he
was able to crawl up the hill,
we had to puzzle out how to
turn the airboat off. Finally,
I climbed up the edge and flipped
the three switches and shut it down.
Thankfully, two other airboaters
came down the canal. They helped
us push the bow around and slide
the boat back down the hill. My
friend fired up the boat, swung
it around, and came back up and
over the levee. Whew!

We got out in the marsh where he
had seen lots of teal the previous
day. We turned the boat off to
toss out the decoys. When we
went to fire up the airboat to
run it back in the reeds and hide
it, the engine wouldn't start.
Right then, another airboater
came by. We signaled to him, told
him our woes, and asked him to swing
by when he was done hunting. My
friend and I pushed the boat as
best we could up in the reeds and
tried to camo up. It was tough.
We did get a few shots. He and
I each killed a ringer. I also
lost one in the reeds.

When hunting was done the other
boat came back, helped us take the
starter and solenoid off, and loaded
us into an already full boat to
go back to the launching ramp. I
love instructions like, "If we
start taking on water, bail out."
We made it back, took the parts in,
got a replacement solenoid and a fix
to a starter cable connector.

Our rescuer was waiting at the ramp
when we got back. Took us out in the
marsh again, helped us reconnect
everything (not without incident),
and then had to hotwire the boat
to get it going (good thing he's
an LEO). We got out and back in
one piece. I then proceeded to
lose my car keys. I searched and
researched everywhere. Finally,
I had to call SWMBO. Right before
she arrived, I found the keys
where they were supposed to be and where
I had searched twice - the pocket of
my ammo bag. See doing the same thing
repeatedly hoping for a different
outcome sometimes doesn't prove
insanity.

I told my friend to buy a lottery ticket;
he's got some luck coming. And! I claim
to be a Calvinist.

ofs